Dzogchen, which in Tibetan signifies Great Perfection, is a teaching which enables us to discover our real nature.

"The Dzogchen teachings are neither a philosophy, nor a religious doctrine, nor a cultural tradition. Understanding the message of the teachings means discovering one's own true condition stripped of all the self-deceptions and falsifications which the mind creates. The very meaning of the Tibetan term "Dzogchen," or "Great Perfection," refers to the true primordial state of every individual and not to any transcendent reality.

Dzogchen is not a school or sect, or a religious system. It is simply a state of knowledge which masters have transmitted beyond any limits of sect or monastic tradition. In the lineage of the Dzogchen teachings there have been masters belonging to all social classes, including farmers, nomads, nobles, monks and great religious figures, from every spiritual tradition or sect.

Dzogchen does not depend on externals; rather it is a teaching about the essentials of the human condition. Since the Dzogchen teachings are not dependent on culture, they can be taught, understood and practiced in any cultural context. To be a practitioner of Dzogchen, one does not need to change anything externally - one's clothes, one's job or one's way of life.

In the Dzogchen teachings we talk of 'being aware', which means we work with our circumstances: we see how they manifest and then we do our best. It is not always easy to understand a situation and know the best way to act, but we always try to do our best. And by doing practice, we develop more clarity.

The Dzogchen teachings say that the most important thing is discovering our real nature of mind. But first we must discover our own everyday mind. If we never discover in a real sense our own mind and its limitations, then we are jumping too quickly into the real nature of mind. So it is very, very important that we first actually understand our real condition and also our relative condition: our physical body, our energy, and our mind, and how these relate to our existence and our own world with all its problems."

Chögyal Namkhai Norbu. "Dzogchen: The Self Perfected State". Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications, 1989.

 

THE ORIGIN OF DZOGCHEN

 

The origins of Dzogchen are traced to the Primordial Buddha, Samantabhadra, from whom this remarkable heritage of wisdom has been transmitted from master to disciple in an unbroken lineage down to the present day.

In the Buddhist tradition, historians attribute the origins of the Dzogchen teaching to twelve primordial Masters who lived in archaic times, while the Dzogchen passed down to our day within Tibetan Buddhism, was first expounded more than two thousand years ago by Garab Dorje, an emanation of the Buddha Vajrasattva.

Nirmanakaya Garab Dorje was born in a royal family in Oddiyana, an ancient kingdom sometimes identified with the valley of Swat in Pakistan. He showed many special signs that he was not an ordinary child. At age 7 he entered into a philosophical debate with 500 scholars and defeated all of them, without ever having studied himself.

Afterwards he meditated on a mountaintop until his 32nd birthday. He received empowerments, instructions and entrustment of the Dzogchen tantras in an instant from Vajrasattva and attained the stage of "no more learning".

Having reached the state of complete enlightenment, he then transmitted these teachings to his retinue of exceptional beings, among who Manjushrimitra is regarded as his chief student.

Manjushrimitra was born in India. Before he met Garab Dorje he was a Brahmin, a monastic pandit. When Garab Dorje attained nirvana, Manjushrimitra beheld him in the sky in a mass of light. With the sound of a thunderclap a tiny golden casket descended from the light into the palm of his hand. Within it Manjushrimitra found the The Three Statements That Penetrate the Essence written on a leaf.

This Three Statements of Garab Dorje are: "Introduce in the state directly" refers to the transmission by the master, who, in various ways, introduces and brings the disciple to understand the condition of "what is", the individual's primordial state. This is the Base. "Do not remain in doubt" means that one must have a precise knowledge of this state, finding the state of the presence of contemplation which is one and the same in all the thousands of possible experiences. This is the Path. "Continue in the profound knowledge of self-liberation" is the Fruit.

Just by seeing it he attained realization equal to that of his teacher. Manjushrimitra classified the 6.4 milllion verses of Dzogchen into three categories related to Three Statements: the base teachings of Semde, the path teachings of Longde, and the fruition teachings of Menagde. He meditated for many more years at Sosadvipa, a charnel ground, west of Bodhgaya. Later he transmitted the Dzogchen teachings to Shri Singha.

Shri Singha was the chief disciple and successor of Manjushrimitra in the lineage of the Dzogchen teachings. He was born in the Chinese city of Shokyam in Khotan and studied at first with the Chinese masters Hatibhala and Bhelakirti.

Shri Singha met Manjushrimitra in the charnel ground of Sosaling, and remained with him for twenty five years. Having transmitted all the oral instructions, the great master Manjushrimitra dissolved his body form into a mass of light.

Among Shri Singha's disciples were Vimalamitra, Padmasambhava and the Tibetan translator Vairotsana. These three outstanding masters was brought the Dzogchen teachings to Tibet.

 

Guru Padmasambhava

 

Guru Padmasambhava, an emanation of the Buddha Amitaba, was a great yogi from the region that borders on present day Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Trisong Detsen, the 38th king of Tibet and an incarnation of Manjushri, invited the famous tantric master Guru Padmasambhava from India. Recalling his past aspirations, Guru Padmasambhava accepted the invitation, and on his way he subdued the demons of Tibet, transforming them into faithful guardians of the Dharma.

He spent more than 55 years in Tibet, manifesting countless wonders and is highly revered by all the schools of Tibetan Buddhism, and especially by the Nyingma. He founded the first monastery in the country, Samye Gompa, initiated the first monks, and introduced the people to the practice of Tantric Buddhism.

Guru Padmasambhava gave teachings and transmission of the Vajrayana and Dzogchen to hundreds of disciples. His main students, The Twenty Five Disciples, are the root incarnations of the many masters of this day.

 

TERMA

 

Termas are hidden Dharma treasures. Guru Padmasambhava with his principle disciple, Yeshe Tsogyal, hid hundreds of teachings and instructions as treasures, in the forms of scriptures, images, and ritual articles, to be revealed at an appropriate time in the future. He saw that many of this teachings would benefit future generations.

Some of these termas have been rediscovered and special terma lineages established throughout Tibet as a result. Out of this activity developed, especially within the Nyingma tradition, two ways of dharma transmission: kahma - long oral transmission from teacher to student in unbroken disciplic lineages, and the short transmission of terma.

Termas are generally of two kinds, gong ter (Mind Treasures) and dze ter (Material Treasures). Gong ter are extracted from the inconceivable expanse of enlightened awareness, wisdom-mind, by the terton for whom they are intended. They are then taught and written down in a way intelligible to those connected to such a teacher and teachings. Dze ter are discovered as objects such as yellow parchments or scrolls inscribed with dakini-script, ritual objects, reliquaries, jewels, and so on. They may take any form in order to benefit beings.

Masters who find termas are known as 'treasure-revealers' (tertons). Most are considered reincarnations of one or another of the twenty five main disciples, who had been initiated into the meaning of each teaching in their seminal life with Guru Padmasambhava.

The foremost revealers of terma were the Five Terton Kings: Nyang Ral Nyima Özer (1124-1192) Guru Chökyi Wangchuk (1212-1270) Dorje Lingpa (1346-1405) Pema Lingpa (1445/50-1521) Padma Ösel Do-ngak Lingpa (Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo) (1820-1892).